I have changed the name of the old topic (Hundreds of stolen photos: (printscreens added PICFAT!)) just to be able to spread the word better. Talking sense to this russian based seller doesn't seem to work. The site is not interested in copyrights and the seller just gives an bad attitude and arrogance, so all I can do is spread the word.

This looks like some russian version of Facebook, and I get the impression that someone is trying to sell somethingm but I cannot be sure. I used the translate option of my google chrome browser, but I'm still not sure what's up there.

PS. You can drag and drop your photos to http://www.google.com/imghp. With that you can find if your images are somewhere they should not be. Seems to be working well - at least I'm finding lots and lots of these now.

***EDIT AGAIN***

Find yours?
Once you've found your photos from the original site, <u>contact support(at)vkontakte.ru</u> with links.

If / when you recognize some other seller's photos, please inform them directly and let us know who you've recognized and informed.

There are three different selling-groups, so three different photo-stealing-sellers in question.

About the site, vkontakte.ru: I was able to log in there through one friendly friend-of-a-friend. There is no report -buttons there, so registering to the site (requires phone number) isn't worth it. I emailed the site support about my photos (pretty much the whole gallery of my website...), let's hope the support helps.

Last edited by dreadviolet on Sun Sep 18, 2011 12:22 pm, edited 6 times in total.

So, what do I do exactly? I didn't think I'd personally have to deal with this, but she has two of my images and one of them she is DEFINITELY trying to sell, and I have no credit whatsoever. I translated someone saying "how much?" and her answering with a number response, so I take that as "selling."

probably more as well, including some I've seen but can't place. Seriously, no one is safe. She changed the colors on some to make it harder to recognize. Everyone should probably give it a look-see, as a lot of the pictures look like they were taken from this forum specifically, i.e. show off pictures.

HairyMan wrote:How do you find "stolen photos" on other websites ? is there some tool ? i doubt

Yes there is: Google. You can't searc "stolen photos", but you can search your own images, and you'll easily find if google finds your photo (or even a part of made into another photo).

dreadviolet wrote:
PS. You can drag and drop your photos to http://www.google.com/imghp. With that you can find if your images are somewhere they should not be. Seems to be working well - at least I'm finding lots and lots of these now.

I printscreened all the galleries in the three groups, that way it's easier for everyone to search their photos.
I've updated printscreens and info about the case in the first message.

Your photos? ---> Contact support(at)vkontakte.ru

If you recognize photos of someone else, inform them directly an let us know who you're found & informed.
It took me two hours to list only my photos, so I don't have time to do it for anyone else. I think I've done my part for this case now.

Yep, I noticed: after I logged out, I can see them again. But can't comment. And she of course removed all the comments that I made.

Edit to add:

She replied at my PM to her. She said she will remove my photos after she gets back from holiday in Turkey where she's now. Heh, I finally managed to tire her to do that. (That exactly was my tactic after she didn't react to the first messages! And yes my last message was pretty rude, since friendly way wasn't really successful with her). However I'm afraid she won't remove any other pics than mine. Let's still hope she does.

Good god, I haven't seen anyone steal this many of my photos for a long time!
If you could get in touch with her for me, and tell her that I will be filing a very formal complaint with the website if my pictures are not removed. Any of them can be found on my facebook fan page which is located in my signature, let me know if there is anything else I can do to assist in getting them taken down.

I've been in contact with her and have finally tired her to promise to take my photos down after she gets back from a holiday. (And for even that I really needed to practically harass her under every photo of mine and every possible way to contact her!) However she still hasn't understood the idea and I'm sure that if she removes my photos, she doesn't remove any other. And I'm still not sure if she does that anyway. Well, when not understanding the basic idea of copyright, it's a bit hard to get her to understand what she's doing wrong).

I have contacted the stuff at vkontakte, but they're doing nothing. A russian guy, whose account I've used to contact Alyssa, said that the site is full music and movies and it doesn't get removed either. Piracy is rampant in Russia and its harder to buy an original cd or movie than a fake over there.

Satelina is also in facebook, you find the page by searching by the name, and the girl's profile you find from the group.

She is actually from my city, from Ukraine, not Russia, dut doesn't matter. She is really good braider. I don't know how she stole the pics earlier, but now that albums are named "Not my works" or "Examples of hairstyles". A lot of braiders use other braiders' pics just to show the examples of work. I think it's okay, isn't it? I also post other works in my group, but I do not delete copyright and write that it is not my work, I just like it.

As for the piracy, yeah, it is normal in my country to watch or download movies only in the Internet. Even if I want to find some rare movie, it is impossible to find the license.